Gaza : Calls in Algeria urge Moroccans to «surround the royal palace»

Algerian politician Abdelkader Bengrina has once again made headlines with his latest remarks. The leader of the El Binaa El Watani party—a group closely aligned with the government—called on Moroccans, who have been staging near-daily protests against Israeli aggression in Gaza, to change the focus of their demonstrations.

While praising «the marches of our brothers in Morocco», Bengrina urged protesters to «surround the royal palace during upcoming demonstrations to pressure it into halting military and security coordination, intelligence sharing, and eventually severing diplomatic ties with the Zionist entity», he declared on Sunday during a party meeting in Algiers dedicated to supporting Algerian parliamentarians backing the Palestinian cause.

Notably, Bengrina did not call on Algerians to take to the streets in solidarity with Palestine. Instead, he praised the «actions of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune for the Palestinians», though he gave no specific examples. During the presidential election campaign in September 2024, Bengrina supported «the independent candidate» Tebboune.

Algeria currently bans all marches and sit-ins in support of the Palestinian cause, allowing only closed-door events like those organized by Bengrina’s party.

Last week, thousands of Moroccans attempted to storm the ports of Casablanca and Tangier to protest the arrival of two ships allegedly carrying weapons destined for Israel. Since October 7, 2023, Moroccan mobilizations in support of Palestinians have received extensive coverage in the Algerian media.